Oaring Eagle: ESD Senior Makes Waves in National Regattas

Mote hopes her team can return to nationals before she heads to Stanford in the fall

Standing over 6 feet tall, Katherine Mote gravitated to the basketball court. 

But as she’s gotten older, the Episcopal School of Dallas senior has found her frame is perhaps better suited to the water.

Mote has helped lead a rowing resurgence at ESD that also has gotten her exposure on the national level. She has signed with national power Stanford University and gained experience with the U.S. national program — not bad for someone who didn’t row competitively until three years ago.

She credits her rapid rise to a neighbor who rowed in college and thought she might be a good fit. After some sessions on the ergometer, she joined the Eagles during her freshman year. 

“Initially I didn’t like it, but I found my place. After that first season, I started to love it,” Mote said. “Rowing is a big input-output sport. If I put in as much effort as I wanted to, then I could improve.”

Her first season at ESD was cut short by the pandemic, but that pause in competition enabled Mote to build up strength and endurance to go with her natural size advantage.

“Height equates to stroke length, and that is leverage. The longer your arm length, the more leverage you can get,” ESD crew coach Adam Jones said. “Flexibility and mobility have a lot to do with it, too.”

Mote credits her teammates for helping her lower her times in all three scull classes — single, double, and quad. Last year’s breakthrough resulted in a trip to the USRowing Youth National Championships in Florida alongside fellow seniors Mia Harrington (a Miami signee), Sydney Stuelpe, and Crenden Boyd.

After winning the quad sculls at the Central Regional regatta, the foursome finished 11th nationally. Mote and Harrington also won a regional title in double sculls.

“We had the benefit of all getting better together. We spent as much time together on the water as we could,” Mote said. “We had a blast training and leading up to it. There were a lot of teams we hadn’t seen before. It was intimidating, but we did a good job of staying internal and rowing our own race.”

After nationals in June, Mote had less than a day in Dallas to unpack and repack for several weeks at under-19 national team training camp in California. Following three weeks of rigorous evaluations, she was chosen as an alternate at the World Rowing Under 19 Championships in Italy.

“It was a great experience, just being around that many great girls,” Mote said. “I got to meet so many people from other countries.”